Soroka Health Centre, Beersheba 1959

The Beersheba Hospital of Kupat Holim was designed for 250 beds in 1955 and grew into a 1,200-bed medical centre, serving the south of the country and the Negev desert. It is a pavilion-type hospital, in which the medical facilities and wards are concentrated in one multi-storey block. Climatic considerations led to the adoption of a loose grid design of patio gardens and pavilions, connected to the main hospital building by pergolas. The whole hospital area was surrounded by a green belt of pepper trees and sycamores during the time of construction to protect the complex from the sand and the dust storms blowing in from the surrounding semi-desert.

It is interesting to compare the ways in which the Beilinson and Beersheba hospitals expanded. Beilinson was a single compact unit, which expanded in one direction. Beersheba was a dispersed pavilion-type hospital in which the spaces between pavilions were partially filled.